Cook Fresh! Free Cooking Class Offered
The Suquamish WIC Program has received a grant from the USDA to offer the Cook Fresh! program. This grant allows us to purchase fresh pro-duce from a local farm throughout the Farmers’ Market season, and to pro-vide it to a small group of WIC clients who have committed to attending a series of cooking classes. The cooking classes, which will focus on basic skills and cooking with fresh produce, are open to all community members. (No child care provided.) Classes will be led by Cathy Gunderson, the WIC Nutritionist. They will be held twice a month on Thursdays at 4:30 in the Elders’ Lunchroom kitchen from July through October.
The schedule is:
Aug 5
Aug 19
Sept 16
Sept 30
Oct 14
Oct 28
We will be learning about food safety and knife skills, steaming and sautéing, soups and salads, and much more! Please consider joining us for one or more of the cooking classes!
Blood Pressure and the Nutrition Connection
Submitted by Fran Miller, Suquamish Tribe Community Nutritionist
High blood pressure affects 65 million Americans. Many of those people may not even know they are at risk! High blood pressure is usually painless and is often called the silent killer because many people do not have any symptoms. If you have high blood pressure, you may be have a higher risk of having a stroke, heart attack, congestive heart failure, and developing hardening of the arteries and kidney disease. The only way to know if you have high blood pressure is to have your blood pressure checked regularly. In addition to taking medications as prescribed and checking your blood pressure regularly, here are some steps you can take to prevent and control high blood pressure.
Reduce Sodium (Salt) in the Diet
Reducing your salt intake is one way that you can lower your blood pressure. On average, the higher a person’s salt intake is, the higher their blood pressure will be. Here are some tips to help you eat less salt:
- Read the Nutrition Facts Label. Foods that have less than 140 mg of sodium or 5% of the DV (daily value) are low in salt.
- The nutrition facts label shown here is from a food that has 20% of the daily value for sodium; it is a high salt food.
- Eat fewer convenience foods as they tend to be high in salt. Compare nutrition facts labels when you do buy pre-prepared foods—different brands of similar foods can vary widely in their sodium (salt) content.
- Choose low sodium canned foods when they are
available.
- Cut the amount of salt a recipe calls for in half, or skip the salt in the recipe altogether.
- Take the salt shaker off the table. When you begin eating less salt, your taste for salt will decrease after a while.
Experiment with other herbs and spices to add more flavor to your food.
Eat More Potassium Rich Foods
A diet rich in potassium can also help to lower blood pressure by helping to decrease the effect that salt has on blood pressure. It can also help to reduce risks of developing kidney stones and possibly osteoporosis. Potassium from food sources (not pills) has the most effect. Fruits and vegetables are the best sources of potassium, which is another great reason to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables every day!
Fit in More Physical Activity
Aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity on most days of the week. Walking is a great way to get more active that doesn’t require a gym membership or any special equipment—all you need to get started is a comfortable pair of shoes.
Aim for a Healthy Body Weight
Even a 5 to 10 pound weight loss can help to improve blood pressure levels. Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and limit fatty, greasy foods. Choose low fat or fat free dairy products, and choose skinless poultry, lean meats, and fish. Limiting portion sizes and getting in some daily physical activity can also help with weight loss goals.
A Word about Smoking
If you smoke, quitting is one of the most important things you can do for your health. The Community Health Program can help you meet your goals in this area—call 394-8468 for more information.
Using Traditional Food Principles to Guide our Diet
Submitted by Fran Miller, Suquamish Tribe Community Nutritionist
We know that eating a traditional Coast Salish diet of sea food, game, plants, berries and nuts promotes health and can help to prevent chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. The ancestors of the Suquamish people were strong and healthy; in fact, they had a longer life expectancy than the first white explorers. In most cultures, as people adopt the traditional western diet that is high in fat and low in fiber, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, health suffers.
Historically, the Coast Salish people began to suffer higher rates of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and cancer with the move to reservation living. In a single generation, fishing, hunting and gathering gave way to commodity foods and store bought foods. Fast food followed soon afterwards.
Today, Americans spend about half of their food dollars in restaurants. Fast food is quick, inexpensive, and high in calories for the amount of money it costs. The price we have paid for the convenience, though, is high. Today one third of American children are overweight or obese and diabetes rates in the United States are at epidemic levels, with rates even higher for Native Americans. Most of us can not go back to a hunting and gathering lifestyle to provide all of our food, but we can use its principles to begin to improve our diets and health. Here are some examples:
• Sea food is still easily accessible, and salmon is one of the best fish to eat for heart health. We can aim to eat salmon and other sea food at least twice a week.
• Game meat is very low in fat. When we purchase meat at the store, we can buy the leanest cuts that we can afford. We can use ground turkey, ground buffalo, or extra lean ground beef. We can also cut back on or avoid heavily processed meats such as bacon, sausage, salami, and bologna. Somehealthier substitutes would include sandwich meats that are at least 95% fat free.
• Most Americans do not eat enough vegetables, fruit, and whole grains. Plant foods were very important in the traditional diet. In today’s diet that would translate into eating lots of vegetables, which provide a similar nutrient profile to the wild plants.
• Berries were the most important fruits in the traditional diet. Today we have a large variety of berries and other fruits available to us from the store, and we can still gather local wild berries in the summer for year round use.
• There were not many grains in the traditional diet. Some roots and nuts were dried and pounded into flours; whole grains would be a reasonable substitute. Most Americans eat too many refined and not enough whole grains; a good rule of thumb is that half of your grains each day should be whole grains.
There were no dairy products in the traditional diet, but the diet was high in calcium that was provided by bone soup, oysters and wild greens. Because these are foods that we don’t usually eat today, we have to think about adding good sources of calcium from 1% or skim milk, low fat yogurt or cheese. Fortified soy or rice milk is a good substitute for people who can’t tolerate cow’s milk.
Michael Pollan, who has written several books about the American food industry and its effects on our health, gives us this simple food rule to guide our thinking about today’s diet: “If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant (factory), don’t.”
Stay Active to Stay Healthy
Wet weather and shorter days mean that finding ways to stay physically active becomes more of a challenge. It is just as important to be active during the winter, since physical activity can improve your mood, help your quality of sleep, and keep those pounds from sneaking up on you. Adults need 30 minutes of physical activity on most days; kids and teens need to accumulate 60 minutes or more of active play each day.
Here are some options for fitting in physical activity when it’s just too wet, cold or dark to play outside.
Go Swimming
Tribal members who live in Kitsap County are eligible for free swim cards that can be used at the Bainbridge Island Aquatics Center or the North Kitsap Pool. You must contact Barbara Hoffman (394-8468) to fill out a form and get your card. Contact the pool to find out their hours for open swim, lap swim, or family swim. For more information on pool hours call the NK Community Pool at 360-598-1071 or Bainbridge Island Parks & Recreation at 206-842-2306.
Exercise Class for Elders
The Enhance Fitness exercise class meets on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 10:30 to 11:30 am in the exercise room at the administration building. The class includes aerobics, strength training, balance, and stretching. It is open to Tribal Elders and their spouses.
Partial Gym Reimbursements
Tribal members who live in Kitsap County are eligible for a monthly $20 gym reimbursement. You may attend any gym, but you are responsible to send your proof of attendance to Barbara Hoffman for each month that you are eligible. To enroll in the reimbursement program, contact Barbara (394-8468) to fill out the paperwork.
Walk Indoors
When it is just too wet or cold to walk outdoors, get in some indoor walking by taking advantage of the local stores. Try walking around the inside of Wal-Mart or the Kitsap Mall for 15 to 30 minutes before you do your shopping.
Tribal Government Employee Fitness Breaks
If you are a tribal government employee, each time you walk or work out in the exercise room for 15 minutes on your break and sign in on the fitness break sign in sheet you will be entered for the monthly drawing for a Big 5 gift certificate. Sign in sheets are available in most tribal administration departments and in the employee exercise room; if your department doesn’t have the sign in sheets available, contact Fran Miller (394-8476) to begin participating.
Kickboxers Ultimate Training (KUT) Classes
Kickboxing & Fitness Classes are held at various times during the week at 18490 Suquamish Way, Suite 120 (next door to the youth center). Community members of all fitness levels are welcome, no membership is required, and drop in classes or punch cards are available. Call Tleena Ives with any questions at (360) 620-9306. A 9 week KUT program which starts every three weeks is also available. Upcoming KUT sessions start on February 20 and March 13. KUT offers every participant the individual attention and professional expertise necessary to help anyone reach health and fitness goals that, up until now, may have seemed impossible. The weekly schedule for KUT classes is below.
Fitness Activities at the Youth Center
Help keep your kids active during the winter months by taking advantage of the organized activities at the Youth Center. Youth Center staff takes the youth swimming on Sunday afternoons at the Bainbridge Island pool. A boys basketball league practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:30 in the gym. The teams participate in the North Kitsap Pee Wee basketball league; there is one team for the boys age 10-13 and another for boys in the 10 & under age category. Craig and Maggie also coordinate elementary school girls basketball, which meets after school at Suquamish Elementary. Check with Youth Center staff for details on these programs; you can reach the Youth Center at 394-8576. In the spring softball and fishing expeditions will be starting as well.
Submitted by Fran Miller, Suquamish Tribe Nutritionist
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Kid Friendly Fruit & Vegetable Recipes
Submitted by Fran Miller, Suquamish Tribe Community Nutritionist
Kids love to help in the kitchen, and they love to eat the food that they have helped prepare. The recipes below are all healthy and feature fruits or vegetables in a rainbow of colors. They are simple enough for preschoolers to help with, or for older children to make on their own with a bit of supervision. Have fun in the kitchen with your child this month!
Bookworm Apple Bark
Grab your books and this crunchy, sweet breakfast treat as you dash off to school.
1 Granny Smith Apple
1 tablespoon peanut butter
2½ tablespoons raisins
1½ tablespoons dried sweetened cranberries
Instructions: Cut apple into four quar-ters, starting at the stem. Remove the core by cutting away to leave a flat surface on the apple quarter. Be careful not to cut too much of the edible portion of the apple away. Drop and slightly spread the peanut butter on apple quarters. Mix together the raisins and dried cranberries then sprinkle on peanut butter.
Serves: 1
Banana in a Blanket
1 (6 inch) whole wheat tortilla
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 medium banana
1 teaspoon maple syrup or honey
1 tablespoon crunchy, nutty nugget cereal
Instructions: Lay tortilla on a plate. Spread peanut butter evenly on the tortilla. Sprinkle cereal over peanut butter.
Peel and place banana on the tortilla and roll the tortilla. Drizzle maple syrup or honey on top.
Optional: garnish with more cereal on top.
Serves: 1
Crazy, Curly Broccoli Bake
1½ cups whole wheat corkscrew pasta, dry
3 cups broccoli, frozen, chopped
1 10.5-oz.can low-fat cream of broc-coli soup, condensed
½ cup low fat milk
2 tablespoons plain bread crumbs
¼ teaspoon salt-free seasoning blend
Instructions: Preheat oven to 350F.
Cook pasta according to package di-rections. Place frozen broccoli in large microwave safe and oven proof dish and cook for 2 minutes on HIGH. Coarsely chop cooked broccoli. Mix soup with milk, and add to chopped broccoli.
Add cooked pasta and mix. Top with bread crumbs and seasoning blend. Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes until heated through.
Serves: 6
T-Rex Tortilla Pizza
2 seconds butter-flavored cooking oil spray
1 (6 inch) flour tortilla
1½ tablespoons mild salsa
½ cup frozen yellow corn, cooked
1½ tablespoons cooked chicken breast, shredded
1 tablespoon cheddar cheese, shredded
½ teaspoon dried chives
Instructions: Preheat oven to 400F.
Cook corn according to package in-structions. Spray cookie sheet with cooking oil. Place tortilla
on oiled sheet. Top with chicken, cooked corn, cheese, chives, and salsa. Bake for 10 minutes.
Cut in quarters and serve.
Serves: 1
Recipes are adapted from www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org
Submitted by Kathy Kinsey
The Canoe Journey was a perfect example that pulling together is our tradition, not drug, alcohol or to-bacco abuse. The journey brought a great coming together of our families, friends, community, youth and elders, traditions, mind, body, and spirit with nature and the elements. One could see the strength and beauty of our people in a unique brilliance not seen in our everyday activities. It is amazing that so many can pull all day and sing and dance all night. Our pride in our ancestors grew as we realized their strength, endurance, and wisdom. Remembering our ancestors did not have relief pullers or support barges. When they landed, they still needed to gather and prepare their meal.
Journey leaders required participants to pledge to not drink or use drugs during the journey. Leaders implemented a policy that there was no commercial tobacco use in the canoe, camp or around the canoe. These policies and practices along with the great coming together of all the journey elements of health creates a healing environment that generates chal-lenge, joy, love, strength, beauty, and peace.
Journey Practices Promoting Health
- To begin on the journey, participants choose their purpose, direction, and goal.
- To reach their goal, participants were self-disciplined and hardworking. They found within themselves strength and a willingness to perse-vere even when things were hard. Upward spi-rals began. Participants had many successes for the challenges they faced which made them feel good. Feeling good lead to having fun with friends and family and feeling even better. Feel-ing better lead to participants looking forward to the next day’s challenges.
- Participants choose to grow and learn on the journey and sought support from others knowing no one can reach their destination alone.
- Participants found meaning and identity in the journey and to savor life’s joys such as warm sweat shirts in the cool moist morning air, shade on the sunny afternoons, or warm showers that wash the salt and sand away.
- Elders and experienced participants offered to mentor others and participants sought out these mentors. Mentors were a link from the past to participants’ future by being available to them in the present. Mentor saw strengths, not limita-tions in participants. Mentors made participants proud to be themselves. They told participants by their actions and their word they were spe-cial.
- Prayers were said in thanks for all the gifts.
- Moments of silence were observed to take in the beauty and listen to the heart.
- Eating traditional foods of crab, salmon, and clams with salad, vegetables, and fruits was ideal for weight management.
- Paddling burned around 200 calories per hour and many hours were spent paddling.
- Dancing burned up to 300 calories per hour. Many danced long into the night.
- Gathering and preparing traditional meals pro-moted health by burning more calories, uphold-ing tradition, and giving back to the community.
- Water, lean meat sandwiches and fruit were pro-vided, no sugary beverages and few empty calo-rie snacks.
- Song, dance, and pulling in the canoe were pow-erful tools in relieving stress and helping indi-viduals find mind, body, spirit balance.
- Children were playful, active, and engaged all day and evening not sitting and watching TV.
- Participants supported each others positive health habits creating a community of support.
Do you want to prepare for next year’s journey to Swinomish?
- Wellness Center Services offer chemical de-pendency, mental health, and gambling addition programs and support through any/all of the fol-lowing:
- Individual counseling
- Group counseling
- Education/support groups, such as ―Healthy and Whole‖
- Psychiatric/addiction medication assessment/management
- Consultation
Call: (360) 394-8558
Community Health Services offer nutrition, physical fitness, and tobacco cessations support such as:
- Individual counseling
- Classes
- Nicotine replacement therapy as part of your quit plan
- Chantix or other medications as part of your quit plan
- Referral to Tobacco Quit Line
- Physical fitness support
Call:
Kathy Kinsey, Community Health Nurse
(360) 394-8535
Barb Hoffman, Community Health Nurse
(360) 394-8468
Fran Miller, Nutritionist (360) 394-8476
Jules Bennet-Gladstone, Traditional Foods Coordi-nator (360) 394-8564
Be Adventurous with Whole Grains
Submitted by Fran Miller, Suquamish Tribe Community Nutritionist
Eating three or more servings of whole grains daily has many health benefits, including:
Lower risk of some cancers — especially colon cancer and some types of breast cancer
Reduced diabetes risk — whole grains take longer to digest, thus causing less spike in insulin and blood sugar levels
Weight control — the fiber in whole grains helps us feel full on fewer calories Easy ways to add more whole grains to your diet include using
100% whole wheat bread, brown rice, oatmeal, barley and whole wheat pasta. When shopping for whole grain foods read the label and look for the words “100% whole wheat” or “100% whole grain”.
Be adventurous this month and try a new whole grain. Some of the less common whole grains include:
• Quinoa
• Bulgur
• Amaranth
• Buckwheat
• Kasha
• Millet
• Triticale
Many of these grains are becoming easier to find in bulk bins or specialty sections of local grocery stores. Many of them take only 15-20 minutes to cook and thus can easily be incorporated into weeknight meals. Here are a couple of quick recipes to get you started. These recipes were both popular with this year’s Wellness & Weight Management class participants.
Amaranth "Grits"
1 cup amaranth
1 clove garlic, finely chopped or pressed
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cups water or vegetable stock
Sea salt or soy sauce to taste
Hot sauce to taste
Optional Garnish: 2 plum tomatoes
Combine the amaranth, garlic, onion, and stock in a 2-quart saucepan. Boil; reduce heat and simmer covered until most of the liquid has been absorbed, about 20 minutes.
Stir well. If the mixture is too thin or the amaranth is not quite tender (it should be crunchy, but not gritty hard), boil gently while stirring constantly until thickened, about 30 seconds. Add salt or soy sauce to taste. Stir in a few drops of hot sauce, if desired, and garnish with chopped tomatoes.
Quinoa with Toasted Almonds & Dried Cranberries
1 cup quinoa
1/2 cup slivered blanched almonds
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 tsp salt
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Directions:
If your quinoa is not pre-rinsed, rinse well under running water in a fine meshed strainer.
Heat a wide bottomed pan on medium heat and add the oil Stir and toast the sliced almonds until golden,then remove from pan Add the quinoa. Stir and toast until dry and turning color. Add boiling water, veggie cube, salt, bay leaf and cinnamon stick, and dried cranberries. Bring back to boil, cover, turn the heat to simmer, cook for 10 minutes or until all the water is absorbed.
Remove from heat and allow to sit for five minutes with the lid on; then fluff gently with a fork and serve.
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